I just bought the Kitchenaid 600 mixer after having spent a good deal of time comparing it to the new Cuisinart 5qt and 7qt stand mixers that have gotten such good press the last year. I finally decided on the Kitchenaid, so thought I'd share my reasoning in the following bullet points.
1) First, if you look at these items on Amazon, both the KA and Cuisinart mixers share 4.5 star ratings. Almost all of those who owned one of these mixers without owning the other one seemed to have great things to say about the mixer they bought. So, I took this to mean that I really couldn't go wrong either way. However, I did know that I wanted either the 6qt KA or the 7qt Cuisinart becuase I like to make bread and also because I like heavy duty stuff!
2) Next, I was impressed by the longer 3yr/5yr warranty offered by Cuisinart. However, I think just about every review by someone who had problems with the Cuisinart REALLY complained about their customer service, shipping costs, and hassle of dealing with Cuisinart when something goes wrong. I think most of the KA owners were fairly happy with KA customer service, even if only a 1 year warranty. Either way, most of the people having problems with EITHER of these mixtures seemed to be those who wanted to knead a LARGE amount of dough, and I can't help but thinking they are trying to do too much with the equipment they bought -- they should buy a $1500 Hobart.
3) Kitchenaid's past problems with plastic gears caused me a little concern, but I read enough to know that this was a major issue for them a couple of years back, and that they had taken great pains to correct the problem -- so I discounted this worry.
4) Next, I checked out the Cuisinart 5qt at the store. The good things about it are the lower profile and the tilting mixer head -- giving you more clearance and maybe easier access to the bowl. However, there are a LOT of parts, electronics, springs, levers, etc. on this mixer!! In other words, a LOT to go wrong or break in my opinion. Plus, the digital controls seemed kind of flimsy plastic. Who knows, maybe I'm completely wrong here, but I couldn't help but doubt that the average Cuisinart is not going to make it many years without some issues. Since its only been out a year or so, it doesn't have a track record yet either. This factor swayed me toward the simplicity of the KA 600.
5) Further, as we were looked further at the Cuisinart model at the store we noticed oil leaking out of the mixer head onto the splash guard. What made this particulary disconcerting was that I had read at least two reviews on Amazon (or another website) where people mentioned having this exact same problem with their new Cuisinart -- they had to ship their mixer back East to get this taken care of. This just seemed like more than a coincidence to me, and was especially concerning since I doubt the unit at the store had ever been plugged in. Another point for the KA 600.
6) But Cuisinart's great review in the last Cook's Illustrated still almost swayed me to buy the Cuisinart. However, I went to the trouble of getting a subscription to CI to read the review. My impression from the review was that the main reason the Cuisinart was rated tops was due to all its features. However, I already explained my concern about all the stuff on the Cusinart. Moreover, the KA 600 is now ranked second only behind the Cuisinart, AND had been ranked no. 1 in the previous year review before the new Cuisinart came out. So, I decided to forget the review. NOTE: The Kitchenaid 5qt mixers are not rated that well in CI for bread since they are not powerful enough -- some reviews I read seemed to mix-up the KA 5qt review with the KA 600 mixer, but CI rated the KA 600 fine for bread.
7) Anther factor I considered was the higher rated wattage of the Cuisinart motors in the 5qt and 7qt models. However I read a previous year Cooks Illustrated review that discussed how unreliable the wattage ratings for mixers are since the manufacturers use different methods for rating their mixer motors, and some mfrs intentionally use ways that make their mixers look more powerful even though they actually aren't.
8) Great attachments for the KA included an ice cream maker that is highly rated by reviewers. My KA 600 came with a rebate for a free one of these ice cream makers, so that settled it for me (even though I would have gone with the KA anyways).
Bottom Line: The simple utilitarian design of the KA eventually swayed me its way. The complicated mechanism, many parts, and unproven reliability of the Cuisinart scared me away. BUT, if you love the Cuisinart features and/or need a lower profile design, I'm sure its a great mixer. However, if you overload either one of them with too much dough, you are going to have troubles!!
Products related to this item
Page 1 of 1Start overPage 1 of 1
Reviews with images
Submit a report
A few common reasons customers report reviews:
- Harassment, profanity
- Spam, advertisement, promotions
- Given in exchange for cash, discounts
When we get your report, we'll check if the review meets our Community guidelines. If it doesn't, we'll remove it.
Sorry, there was an error
Please try again later.
Top reviews from other countries
Ipper
It's not that I don't like the mixer
Reviewed in Canada on December 11, 2017Color: SilverVerified Purchase
Amazon Customer
Fast shipping Works very well as expected!
Reviewed in Canada on August 17, 2017Color: SilverVerified Purchase
